By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Updated 10:06 pm, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Lawmakers are forcing County Executive Dan McCoy to scrap a $498,000 contract to overhaul county offices to make way for a satellite community college campus.

The County Legislature's Audit & Finance Committee is expected to toss the bids Thursday after the Law Committee refused to approve the contract Monday night, faulting McCoy's administration's failure to follow a key bidding requirement.

All five bids for the project — including the low bid from Wainschaf Associates of Rensselaer — are expected to be thrown out after the finance panel's special session later this week. But lawmakers said they don't believe the delay will force the county to miss a deadline to finish work by the start of the spring college semester.

The legislature last week approved several contracts linked to the campus plan but flagged the pact with Wainschaf. Questions were raised about whether the firm complied with a mandate that it have state-approved apprenticeship programs for the skilled trades involved.

A 2011 county resolution requires the programs be in place at the time a bid on a major construction project is submitted. But McCoy's staff noted state law says they need only be in place at the time a contract is finalized.

While unions called the apprenticeship rule as a way ensure quality work, others view it as a way to all but guarantee contracts will go to firms that use union labor.

A trade union coalition had called for the bids to be spiked.

None of the five bidders submitted proof of the programs when the bids were opened the first week of April. Wainschaf, which does not typically employ union labor, later offered evidence it had signed an agreement with Laborers Local 190.

County Attorney Thomas Marcelle argued Wainschaf should not be penalized for something the county's failure to ask for it in the bid solicitation. He said the state requirement, which the firm met, probably takes precedence.

McCoy last week blasted lawmakers for failing to approve the contract, saying it threatened the entire SCCC project, which he said would be a boon for downtown.

The Democratic majority insisted it supports the college project but said it had no choice but to take "corrective action."

Committee Chairman Justin Corcoran said the county would be sued for ignoring its own bidding requirement, which could potentially delay the project longer than re-bidding it.

Initial plans called for work on the second-floor classroom space to begin before July 1.

Lawmakers said the goal is still possible so "long as the bid process is not delayed by the administration."